The Omega's Heart (Wilde Creek Four) Read Free Page A

would. He hated being thought of as less than just because he couldn’t shift. He’d started
working out in his late teens, determined to be a powerful male,
but no matter the muscles or the training he had, he was never
asked to guard the mates, patrol around Wilde Creek, or help out in
any way other than in service of the others. The protectors, those
ranked males who were under the alpha in authority but had
authority over all omegas, thought less of him because he couldn’t
shift. He’d won many fights against them in human form, but it
didn’t matter, at least not to them.
    Some omegas liked their status, but like
Adam, Jeremiah had had the status thrust on him. Maybe now it was
time for a change. He shook his head at himself and stared up at
the dark ceiling. He’d been feeling off for a few weeks now, and he
couldn’t explain it. Maybe he’d just had enough of being an omega,
and his inner wolf, no matter how lacking in actual fur and claws
he was, appeared to be telling him it was time to move on.
    It wasn’t too much to ask that he be able to
find a mate and have a family, was it? He knew that she-wolves
didn’t want to be with him because they were afraid that his
non-shifting genes would be passed on to future generations. A
human woman might not care, though.
    Deciding to think about it more in the
morning, he rolled over and closed his eyes, drifting away to
sleep.
     

 
     
    Chapter 3
     
    After the house got quiet Thursday night,
Honey slipped silently down to the first floor with her bag slung
over her shoulder and her purse tucked under her arm. In college,
she’d heard some of the wolves talk about their alpha’s homes as if
they were fortresses, with security patrols, and some even with
high fences and guarded gates. Her father didn’t believe in guards.
In his opinion, he was too much of a badass for anyone to bother
coming into his home to mess with him or her. So far, that had
proved true. The safest place she’d ever been was within the walls
of his home… until now.
    She knew that she could actually go to Redlin
and stay with her friends, but that wasn’t far enough away. Her
father could send pack members to grab her as soon as he figured
out where she was. No, she needed to get far away. Far enough that
he wouldn’t know where she was and wouldn’t be able to find her
before the full moon.
    To throw her father off a bit, she placed a
note on the kitchen counter, telling him that she was going to the
bridal shower and that she would be home on Sunday night as she’d
said. What he wouldn’t know, though, was that she was going in the
opposite direction, as far away from Wyling River as she could get.
She’d find a safe place to stay for the full moon and then she’d
keep going. She’d thought to come back in a few weeks, but now she
wasn’t sure she’d be welcome. She was deliberately going against
her father’s word, which as alpha carried a lot of weight. He could
punish her severely for leaving.
    Disappearing seemed like a good plan. She’d
left her cell phone on her bed before she came downstairs. She
didn’t like being without her phone, but she could get a
pay-as-you-go phone somewhere for any calls she’d need to make. She
didn’t doubt for a minute that she was doing the right thing.
Something was up with her dad, and it was happening two days after
the full moon. Whatever it was, she sure as hell didn’t want to be
there when it went down.
    She slipped through the back door easily and
walked to her car, tossing her bag and purse onto the back seat and
sitting behind the wheel. Turning on the engine, and without
waiting for it to warm up, she backed smoothly out of the driveway
and out onto the street. She was leaving Wyling River behind. Maybe
for a few weeks, maybe forever.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Saturday afternoon, as exhaustion blurred her
vision and her back ached from sitting in the car for so long, she
pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and turned